Actor Kwon Yul poses during an interview with The Korea Times, at a cafe in Seoul, Friday. / Courtesy of Saram Entertainment

By Park Jin-hai

"Whisper," the SBS legal drama, revealed the truth of Korean society, where the law has been reduced to being a handy and merciless tool for people in power and victimizes ordinary citizens. The recently ended show finished topping the viewership among the Monday-Tuesday dramas, with over 20 percent.

The 16-part legal thriller tells the story of former detective Shin Young-joo, played by actress Lee Bo-young, who struggles to prove her father's innocence. Her father, a former journalist who had been investigating a corruption case in which the law firm giant Taebaek was involved. He is falsely accused of murdering his colleague based on fabricated evidence and is put behind bars by the law firm desperate to cover up the case.

Kwon Yul, the actor who previously played an evil antagonist in "Hey Ghost, Let's Fight," played the villain once again in "Whisper." Playing the role of an ambitious, elite lawyer Kang Jeong-il who happens to kill a journalist for his goal and eventually faces the consequences of doing so, Kwon was the one who gave each episode a thrilling twist and led a brain game with the protagonists.

Kwon said his latest role was more trying than his previous villain roles.

"If one is depicted as absolute evil, the role is not so difficult to play. But Kang is not all evil and that made it hard to portray," Kwon said. "In his blind race for the goal, his company gets involved in a fight and he too happens to join the assault. In his blind chase for the goal, accidental wrongdoings occur and he turns into villain. All of this in one drama is very much emotionally consuming."

He said he filmed the drama as if he was challenging his acting limits.

"Emotions also ran to extremes. One moment he strikes and comes out victorious and another he gets hit by Shin and virtuous judge Lee Dong-joon and bellows with rage," said the 34-year-old actor. "I was filming the scene where Kang's father gets murdered and I knew viewers would take it as something only happening on the small screen. But I played my role wishing viewers would not feel it that way. I have driven myself to pulling up the emotion I thought Kang would have felt at the moment, two or three times, so that viewers can better empathize with him."

Kwon said he liked that the drama is not an ordinary melodrama, but a "melodrama for grownups."

"What I liked the most about the drama was that it was not the unconditional and apple-of-my-eye romance. Rather it has dynamic romance for grownups. People develop relationship with their love interests, intertwined with their conditions and interests but also some go beyond all these," he said. "Kang breaks his relationship with his lover and urges her to marry someon eelse for his sake, while Lee and Shin, who hated each other in the beginning, become partners for revenge against their common enemies, and then become most trusted lovers."

Kwon was cast for the role as the director found his image so strong in the 2016 movie "The Hunt." Kwon said, "I'm not worried that I might land similar villain characters afterwards. As the one scene in which I appeared carried a strong image and led me to the next project, I want to continue to build up my portfolio as an actor like filling up pieces of paper bearing my different faces."